Det­ta­glio del pro­get­to ed. 2016

mora­­vian-church / 70F architecture

Pro­get­ti­sta  Bas ten Brinke
Loca­tion  Amsterdam
Desi­gn Team  

Bas ten Brinke
Cari­na Nilsson

Anno  2013
Cre­di­ti Fotografici  

Pho­to­gra­pher: Luke Kramer

Foto ester­ni:

Descri­zio­ne del progetto

Church buil­ding for the Mora­vian Church Amster­dam South East.
Wi Eegi Ker­ki (Suri­na­me­se for Our Own Church) is a bea­con of light in this part of Amster­dam (Bijl­mer), the poo­re­st part in town. The yel­­low-whi­­te church emi­ts light per­ma­nen­tly. Insi­de howe­ver, the exact oppo­si­te hap­pens. The sun­light — or if you pre­fer, the moon­light — enters the church throu­gh a huge hid­den sky­light. The reac­tion of one of the visi­tors: “It feels like a higher power wat­ches over you.”
Light and the colour whi­te are of great impor­tan­ce in the litur­gy of the Mora­vian Church, the ori­gi­na­tor of Wi Eegi Ker­ki. Both have the­re­fo­re beco­me the cen­tral ele­men­ts of the buil­ding which — also in line with the litur­gy — is sim­ple in it’s composition.
The entran­ce and the kit­chen are the cen­ter of the church. To the left and right of the entran­ce are the mee­ting hall and the church hall. On the floor abo­ve the mee­ting hall are some fle­xi­ble mee­ting rooms.
The pla­ce whe­re the visi­tor ‘feels’ the litur­gy the most is the church hall. Becau­se the visi­tor has to enter the main assem­bly hall by wal­king under­neath the bal­co­ny that hangs in the loft, he expe­rien­ces the nine meter high spa­ce he even­tual­ly enters even lar­ger than it actual­ly is.
Across the full width of the room is also a 13 meter high tower with a sky­light. Throu­gh it, indi­rect sun­light falls on the whi­te wall whe­re the visi­tor looks at. Whe­re this light actual­ly comes from, remains a myste­ry to most visi­tors. During the ser­vi­ce slo­w­ly some sha­do­ws draw on this imma­cu­la­te whi­te rear wall.
The appea­ran­ce of Wi Eegi Ker­ki is sober and intro­vert. On the outsi­de the church has a strong mono­li­thic cha­rac­ter. The mound on which the church is built, ads to this effect. The inte­rior looks orga­ni­zed and clear. 550 sim­ple whi­te chairs are rea­dy for the guests, orna­men­ts and deco­ra­tions are almo­st non-existent.
Super­vi­sors’ quo­te: “The Church is in its bold archi­tec­tu­ral pla­sti­ci­ty and restrai­ned use of mate­rials an asset to this district.”

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